As it is well known, the need of realizing sensor devices of various types is always increasing, such as pressure sensors, temperature sensors, sensors for measuring the PH, magnetic sensors, sensors sensitive to the field of the infrared radiations or IR, and other sensors, to be used in different fields, such as in the field of microfluidics, of microelectronics, of mechanics, the sizes of these sensor devices becoming smaller and smaller.
It is also known to realize miniaturized sensors by using an advanced technology of micromachining, for obtaining integrated microsensors and microactuators together with standard circuitry. Devices realized with this technology are commonly indicated as MEMS (acronym of “Micro Electro-Mechanical System” i.e. miniaturized electro-mechanical system), they have reduced size, and are usually low cost, i.e. they are realized respecting the so-called low-cost targets.
Moreover, a MEMS device may be manufactured on a semiconductor substrate simultaneously with additional circuitry, like signal processing circuitry (signal processing), thus obtaining a single device that also has a limited distance between sensor and circuitry, thus strongly increasing the reliability of the processed signal.
A MEMS device thus realized so as to comprise a sensor and related circuitry realized on a same substrate has a high-sensing sensitivity together with a low-realization cost, which makes its realization and use attractive.
Although it may be advantageous in several aspects, this known technique may have a drawback in that it may require the application of micromachining techniques after the realization of the integrated circuitry, with a potentially unavoidable increase in the number of process steps, and, in consequence, an increase in the cost of the final device comprising the sensor and the related circuitry.